Income Inequality and Redistributive Government Spending

The paper examines empirically the question of whether more unequal societies spend more on income redistribution than their more egalitarian counterparts. Theoretical arguments on this issue are inconclusive. The political economy literature suggests that redistributive spending is higher in unequal societies due to median voter preferences. Alternatively, it can be argued that unequal societies may spend less on redistribution because of capital market imperfections. Based on different data sources, the cross-country evidence reported in this paper suggests that more unequal societies do spend less on redistribution.
Publication date: January 2003
ISBN: 9781451843149
$15.00
Add to Cart by clicking price of the language and format you'd like to purchase
Available Languages and Formats
English
Prices in red indicate formats that are not yet available but are forthcoming.
Topics covered in this book

This title contains information about the following subjects. Click on a subject if you would like to see other titles with the same subjects.

Development - Economic Development , Development - Economic Development , capital deepening , gini coefficient , dependent variable , statistics , unequal societies , social security , Welfare and Poverty: General , National Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs , Macroeconomic Policy , Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance , and General

Summary